Friday, September 7, 2012

NWG 2012 - Game 1

This past weekend I attended the annual NWG tournament in Wicklow.
As many may know I had been preparing for this tournament for the past
month, painting like crazy to achieve good soft scores, and practicing a
lot to get my Draigo list up to standard. At the weekend I got to see
if that paid off.

So after a long Friday night out to celebrate the graduation from
college of my better half, I got in a sneaky 2hrs sleep and hit the
train station for 5.30am. Ticket troubles arose that I needed to get off
and sort half way there, and then the train had to stop for 40mins in
the middle of nowhere so they could fix a problem with the line. So
getting in 35mins late, my lift to the venue (which was over an hour
away from the station) had gone and since we had no contact with each
other I had to wait around a bit in case they showed. Once I found out
they wern't showing I hit the bus station and narrowly missed the bus
out, meaning I had to wait another hour before getting one. As such, I
arrived two and a half hours late, having just missed game 1. It wasn't
looking like a good start and misfortune definitely seemed to be sitting
on my shoulder. So I got breakfast and waited until round 2 to see what
would happen.

So after a bit of waiting, I found out that for round 2 I would
face Alan Garvey and his Chaos force, consisting of Chaos Space Marines
with allied Traitor Guard. Alan had a beautiful army with lots of
alternative models painted in vibrant colours, including a Conscript
squad that looked like undead Nazis; very Red Skull-esque, without the
red. His list was as follows.

The first thing I noticed about this list was its inability to deal
with flyers, giving me an immediate advantage. He had plenty to deal
with 2+ saves however, so I had to be careful with how I placed Draigo.

We rolled for Warlord traits, both on Strategic, and I got to
reduce his reserve rolls by 1, but he got to re-roll his reserve rolls.
The mission was a custom mission for this tournament. All terrain pieces
3x3" or bigger count as objectives. To claim an objective you had to
have a scoring unit with at least half its members within the piece and
have no enemies within 2". To contest you have to get any non-vehicle
unit into the piece (more than half its models again) and have no enemy
within 2". So you don't lose an objective for moving off it, and to
contest an objective you not only have to get there, but you need to
clear it of enemies also. Kind of like playing Call of Duty. This
mission was called Sieze Ground. We were using standard Dawn of War
deployment.

Also note that for this tournament each player got a card with one
of 4 secret objectives. The card was kept secret until the end of the
game, when they were revealed to claim your objective. For this game I
got Cut Off The Head, which was to kill the enemy HQ worth the most points.

I won the roll-off but made Alan choose sides and go first. This
would be a game about killing so I wanted to see where he deployed
first. Deployment can be seen below. He outflanked his Chosen and kept
both Defilers, his Prince, Marbo, and a Raptor squad in reserve. He also
combined his Infantry Squads. I deployed everything bar the Ravens,
making Dreadknight number one scoring with Grand Strategy. Also, Coteaz
got Prescience and Perfect Timing as his psychic powers for this game.

Turn 1

All of his Guard squads on the boards moved into their respective
ruins to take the objectives. The Raptors flew forward toward the
central ruins, and the Plague Marines in the crater moved forward. The
Vindicator also advanced in order to try and get into range with its
Demolisher Cannon.

The Vindicator dropped a shell on the western Rhino but failed to
damage it. The Raptors had more luck against the other Rhino, getting a
glancing hit. The Guardsmen all ran to try and move up the levels of the
ruins they were in.

I advanced the Dreadknights up the flanks, the one on the right now
being in range with his Heavy Incinerator. Coteaz led his squad toward
the central ruins under cover of the damaged Rhino. The other Rhino,
which had a combat squad inside it, moved full pace toward the ruins on
that side of the board, while the other half of the combat squad moved
to the edge of their runis to get into range. Draigo and his unit moved
toward the Vindicator.

Coteaz' squad and the scoring Dreadknight both ran. The two
Paladins with the Psycannons opened up on the Vindicator but failed to
do more than stun it. The other Dreadknight then fired off his
Incinerator, killing 11 Guardsmen and 2 Commanders from the PCS. Unfortunately both units passed their morale checks.

Turn 2

Turn 2 and the reserves began to arrive. Both Defilers and the
Raptors showed up to the fight. The other Raptor unit flew up to the top
of the central ruins. Both units of Plague Marines moved forward to
take more objectives. The Vindicators moved back. Also the Chosen
outflanked my army and both came in to attack the Dreadknight.

The CCS
issued a First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire order onto the Conscripts.
They then shot at the Dreadknight but failed to do any damage. The
Defiler on the western flank dropped a shell on top of the combat squad
in the ruins and killed two, forcing the others to go to ground. The
Vindicator followed suit onto Draigo's head, but failed to penetrate his
Storm Shield. Both units of Chosen and their Rhinos fired everything
that had at the Dreadknight and did 3 wounds. The Plague Marines in the
crater also managed to immobolise the Rhino.

Draigo put up Psychic Communion, helping him bring on one Storm
Raven. Coteaz also cast Prescience on his own unit before leading them
into the ruins ready to assault the Raptors. The combat squad inside the
Rhino disembarked into the nearby ruins. The scoring Dreadknight
advanced on the Conscripts and the other moved to flame the Chosen and
their ride. Draigo led his squad around the immobolised Rhino, while the
recently arrived Raven moved on the western Defiler.

Draigo's squad shot everything they had at the Plague Marines,
killing one. The eastern Dreadknight fired its Incinerator hitting all
the Chosen and their Rhino, but only killed one. The other Dreadknight,
the scoring one, fired into the ruins, killing 4 Conscripts and
completely wiping out the CCS. The Raven fired its TLMM and TLAC
at the Defiler at close range, while using the Machine Spirit to fire a
Mindstrike into the Conscripts. Only 1 Conscript died, and though 2
penetrating hits were inflicted on the Defiler, he only got Stunned
twice, which he ignored. The combat squad fired their Psycannon at the
Vindicator but did no damage. Finally, Coteaz' squad killed a Raptor to
shooting.

Coteaz' unit then assaulted the Raptors and wiped them out,
claiming the objective. Elsewhere, Draigo and co' made a massive charge,
rolling 3 6's, to assault the Plague Marines who they promptly wiped
out. The Dreadknight charged the Chosen wipping them out, though they
managed to kill it as they went down.

Turn 3

Marbo showed up to the fight, but the Prince stayed off the board.
He appeared in the ruins behind the combat squad, ready to strike. The
Vindicator moved out to provide more options while the Raptors filled
its place ready to shoot the Dreadknight. The Defilers advanced ahead,
while the Plague Marines and Chosen advanced on Coteaz' position.

Both Marbo and the Defiler shot at the combat squad in the ruins
and killed all but one. The other Defiler, Plague Marines, Infantry
Squads, Chosen, and Rhinos all fired at Coteaz' unit killing 4 Marines.
The Vindicator missed its shot and the Conscripts and Raptors combined
did a wound to the Dreadknight twice.

Despite Psychic Communion there was still no sign of the other
Raven. Coteaz put up Prescience on his unit and Perfect Timing also. The
lone Striker down in the corner ruins now advanced on Marbo while the
Dreadknight moved on the Raptors. Draigo and co' decided to try finish
off the Conscripts while the Raven moved against the second Defiler.

To open up shooting the Raven had better luck than last time, blowing up the second Defiler while also killing two members of the PCS
with a Mindstrike, causing the last one to run away. Coteaz and his
squad managed to kill two Plague Marines. The lone Striker also fired at
Marbo but did nothing. Draigo and his unit opened up on the Conscripts
also, killing 11. They then fled.

Draigo led the charge on the Conscripts who failed to rally and
were destroyed. The Dreadknight charged the Raptors and easily destroyed
them, while the lone Striker survived Marbo's attacks and then Force
Weapon'ed him to death, consolidating further into the ruins.

Turn 4

The Daemon Prince finally joined the party. The Defiler moved on
Draigo. The Vindicator moved around the ruins, and everything else moved
on Coteaz. The right flank opened up on Coteaz, leaving him on 1 wound
with no sqaud around him. The Defiler dropped a shell on Draigo's head
but all saves were made, and the Vindicator missed again. The Daemon
Prince failed its Lash. The Defiler tried an assault but failed to make
it.

The Raven finally came in and got ready to fire. It split fire
using the Machine Spirit and killed all the Chosen and a Rhino. The
other Raven killed the last of the Guardsmen. Finally, Draigo led an
assault that killed the Daemon Prince. At this point we were told time
was nearly up so Alan called it, given he only had some Plague Marines
and a Rhino left.

Conclusion

Well that was a good start. It was a pretty good match-up for me,
and all I had to do was make sure none of his many Melta shots got to
hit Paladins. The amount of Large Blasts was certainly intimidating, but
by keeping Draigo or the Dreadknight as the most immediate threat I was
able to mitigate their damage. Alan played a solid game, and there was
no terribly lucky or unlucky dice on either side. The Dreadknights
performed admirably and the Paladins at the very least provided enough
scare tactics to help the win.

In the end I had fulfilled my secondary objective, denied Alan his
(he got Trophy Kill, which meant killing the most expensive enemy unit,
i.e. the Paladins), and won on objectives (8-2), as well as annihilating
his army on VPs, meaning a 20-0win for the Grey Knights.

I had time to go around and check out some armies for a few minutes
(the standard was stunning), before the round 3 draw was up. My next
game was against Sean O'Regan's Tyranids, a rematch from last year's
NWG. This should be interesting.